Oil and gas reservoirs may be accessed by drilling wellbores to enable production of hydrocarbon fluid, e.g. oil and/or gas, to a surface location. In many environments, directional drilling techniques have been employed to gain better access to the desired reservoirs by forming deviated wellbores as opposed to traditional vertical wellbores. However, forming deviated wellbore sections can be difficult and requires directional control over the orientation of the drill bit used to drill the deviated wellbore.
Rotary steerable drilling systems have been used to drill deviated wellbore sections while enabling control over the drilling directions. Such drilling systems often are classified as push-the-bit systems or point-the-bit systems and allow an operator to change the orientation of the drill bit and thus the direction of the wellbore. In conventional rotary steerable drilling systems, the drill bit section or housing is connected to a steering control section or housing by a field separable connection, such as a standard API (American Petroleum Institute) connection. However, accommodation of the API connection requires a longer overall rotary steerable system, resulting in design constraints with respect to both the drill bit section and the overall steerable system. The extra length is required regardless of whether the API connection is a common pin-up connection or a less common pin-down connection.